I have a nearly five year old iBook G4 which has recently gone on the fritz, the result of what I assume was a power surge in the third world country in which I live. The fan no longer works, and the computer freezes and tells me to reset very frequently. The freezes seem to occur even if the processor is Ďcoldí, so I donít think itís just the fan. It still works occasionally: about every ten times or so I reboot Iíll be able to use the thing, but it only lasts for 40 minutes or an hour until it freezes again (tops).

I have about ten more weeks here and really need a working (or semi-working) computer. I have no access to Mac tech support; people are only familiar with PCs here. So I turn to macrumors!

Two questions: 1.) Is there anything I can do to try to fix this that doesnít involve me breaking open the computer? (I have no mechanical skills) I brought my boot disks, but I assume this is a hardware problem.

2.) I know this is probably impossible to predict, but what are the chances that I can get 10 weeks out of this thing? I can live with it as is, but I fear that itís only going to get worse, especially when the weather gets hot and the lack of fan really starts to become a problem.

Thank you! Last time I posted here, I was asking whether or not I would be able to get 9 months of service in the 3rd world from my (then) four year old iBook. You all told me to watch out for the electricity; you are a smart bunch!

I have a nearly five year old iBook G4 which has recently gone on the fritz, the result of what I assume was a power surge in the third world country in which I live. The fan no longer works, and the computer freezes and tells me to reset very frequently. The freezes seem to occur even if the processor is Ďcoldí, so I donít think itís just the fan. It still works occasionally: about every ten times or so I reboot Iíll be able to use the thing, but it only lasts for 40 minutes or an hour until it freezes again (tops).

I have about ten more weeks here and really need a working (or semi-working) computer. I have no access to Mac tech support; people are only familiar with PCs here. So I turn to macrumors!

Two questions: 1.) Is there anything I can do to try to fix this that doesnít involve me breaking open the computer? (I have no mechanical skills) I brought my boot disks, but I assume this is a hardware problem.

2.) I know this is probably impossible to predict, but what are the chances that I can get 10 weeks out of this thing? I can live with it as is, but I fear that itís only going to get worse, especially when the weather gets hot and the lack of fan really starts to become a problem.

Thank you! Last time I posted here, I was asking whether or not I would be able to get 9 months of service in the 3rd world from my (then) four year old iBook. You all told me to watch out for the electricity; you are a smart bunch!

Try booting from the boot disk:

Hold the Option Key when starting then select the Boot Disk (Not the HD) to start up.

After Boot Disk Starts and you get an install screen, Start Disk Utility.

Select Macintosh HD and do both a Repair Disk, then do a Repair Permissions.

That should eliminate any software issues.

After repairing try Booting in SAFE MODE (Hold down SHIFT key when starting until you see the radioactive donut start spinning), then you can release shift key.

See if you are stilling having issues with fan et. al after trying these steps.